I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than 3 years)

Pros

They hire A-players and treat them like adults. No micromanaging here.The company is team focused...and our clients are on our team.The company recognizes and rewards individuals who go the extra mile, while not expecting you to go so far you lose the balance in your life.I really enjoy working with my co-workers; they are engaged, interesting and motivated people who are genuinely interested in both colleagues and client staff. It feels more like working with a group of friends than just a bunch of co-workers.

Cons

Projects and assignments are not always interesting or stimulating. You could spend time doing basic work for a client and needing to find other ways to grow and learn.We have clients throughout Chicagoland; commutes can be challenging at times.

I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (Less than a year)

Pros

As a lifelong consultant but someone who wanted to get off the road for family reasons, finding a firm that allowed me quality of life was very important. Centric emphasizes this during the recruitment process, and actually lives up to it after joining.

They also do a great job of building a culture, which isn't easy since most people are at client sites M-F. But using monthly office meetings and other social events, they help to bridge this gap.

Cons

The pay won't be as high as with larger firms, but those often require 50-75% travel. It's a tradeoff I was willing to make.

Thanks for the nice review. Appreciate your points and your perspectives. Getting pay right is always a complicated job. In my role I actually manage some of the small groups within Centric that are expected to travel (our national service offerings). We do indeed pay more for those willing to travel like you point out.

All about seasons of life right? When I was young and not married full time travel was great fun. Now that I'm old and tired, not so much!Cheers,Mike BrannanVP Tech, Marketing... MoreLess

Great firm to work for! Centric cares about their employees, contractors and clients. It is always about doing what's right and not what will makes us the most money. Leadership is very thoughtful in their strategic moves, which shows in the continued success of the company as a whole.

I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than 8 years)

Pros

Centric has an amazing, unmatched culture. They truly live their core values, particularly those relating to work life balance and commitment to community. Starting with leadership and extending to everyone in the firm, Centric manages people and client projects in a way that strikes the right balance between work and the demands of life outside of work. This genuine, open approach to work and client service is something I have not experienced in my almost 30 years in the work force.

Cons

Centric should continue to strive to provide challenging opportunities that align with the career and development goals of its people. Centric consistently provides interesting and challenging projects to it's team members, but the ability to specialize in a specific area may require that person to travel. This is somewhat a factor of being a firm with a local delivery model; however, there is an opportunity to explore additional models that will provide the ability to develop deep experience in a specific area.

Advice to Management

Continue to innovate and explore new ways of serving your clients. However, be sure you stay true to your core values of openness, balance, and community. This is what make Centric special.

I spend a lot of time working with our business units (low travel) and our service offerings (up to 100% travel). What we've seen is that business units that get excited about a particular offering do end up hiring expertise for local delivery. Problem is of course that not all business units choose to specialize in each offering. So it can be frustrating if your business unit is not investing in your area of interest.

In any event, I'd suggest reaching out to the service offering you'd like to develop expertise in. Maybe there's a creative solution out there? Some remote work for example?

Thanks again for the comments,Mike BrannanVP Tech, Marketing... MoreLess

I have been working at Centric Consulting full-time (More than 3 years)

Pros

Centric is a great place to work. There is enough autonomy in the individual business units to ensure strong client partnership/engagement while ensuring individual consultants have plenty of great projects to work on. The camaraderie of the consultants and management is strong and supportive. It's a fun place to work. We work hard at our clients and have fun together at business unit meetings, national events, and volunteer events as well.

Cons

We're growing and there are some processes that need to be "re-sized" to fit a larger organization. I'm aware that some of this is in the works.

Advice to Management

I'd like to see more sharing across BUs, especially learnings and skills that we all can benefit from

The company was started by three friends who, after discussing what's wrong with most consulting companies, decided to start their own. The strength of the company is its corporate culture and core values, all of which center on providing unmatched experiences for their clients and unmatched experiences for their employees. My coworkers all seem to share the same vision of what our company stands for, and what it's trying to accomplish.

I have found an extremely supportive environment, where we're placed on teams where I get to do a lot of things I'm really good at and really passionate about, while I mostly let others take of the things I'm not good at. This is not simply one experience of being on a well-run team; its the result of a company culture that focuses on building great individual and team experiences.

Since our consulting teams are separated by job sites, and some work from home, we have some pretty memorable meetings/team building events. I've also been encouraged to dive more into the topics I'm passionate about, and give presentations to share my experiences with others.

Cons

My BU vows not to place workers simply to put "butts in seats", which is a great thing. But one side effect is that, in between assignments when consultants are on "the bench," we can get restless and wonder if we've been forgotten. (Note that the paychecks still keep coming.) The communication during that downtime isn't bad, but it could be better.

Advice to Management

As we grow, don't lose the essentials of our company culture. It's what makes us stand above the rest.

Thanks for the kind words. So appreciated. We will remain laser-focused on maintaining our culture for sure. It's the secret sauce.

We also try to keep policies to a minimum. We don't want to dampen anyone's entrepreneurial spirits. Yet as our business grows we do want to get better at "The Centric Way." IE doing things in a similar manner from BU (Business Unit) to BU. This will help our firm scale efficiently.Cheers,Mike Brannan. VP Tech.... MoreLess

Thank you for the post. We haven't changed our core values in 17 years and continue to work to ensure that we are truly living them on a daily basis. We want to be completely honest with ourselves about what is working and what is not and continuously make ourselves better. Thank you for your feedback! Larry... MoreLess

Thank you very much for your time at Centric. I like that you pointed out the desire to have a One Centric feel combined with some uniqueness in each BU.

On this point and your advice one, we have a longer term imperative to "consistently operate the Centric Way." We've made some good progress and have solid plans for the future for this. If you have any specific areas you think we should focus in, I'd love to hear them...please reach out!

Thank you for your positive review. We are happy to hear that you are enjoying being a part of the Centric team and that you are getting the opportunity to grow in your career. It is important to us that our employees have the opportunity to learn and continue to add to their skills. Happy you're with us!... MoreLess